5 cult football films

Football is so central to British culture especially that it transcends sport.

Everything from the tattoos football players get, and FootieLive looked at some of the worst, to endorsement and sponsorship of all manner of products and even films based on the beautiful game happen.

Here, we look at five cult football films.

Escape To Victory (1981)Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone playing football alongside Brazil sporting icon Pele, Tottenham hero Ossie Ardiles and World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore? Yeah, they made a film together.

As if that isn’t ridiculous enough, then there’s the plot of Escape To Victory.

British and American prisoners of war agree to play a German team during the Nazi occupation of Paris in a bid to escape their internment camp.

The Damned United (2009)Brian Clough’s infamous 44 days in charge of Leeds United in 1974, following Don Revie’s departure, is one of football’s best-known examples of player power.

Adapting David Peace’s bestseller, this biopic sport drama sees Martin Sheen play the legendary manager and Timothy Spall takes on the part of Clough’s long-time assistant Peter Taylor.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)Football and sport in general is about breaking down barriers; so dealing with attitudes towards women from different backgrounds, cultures, faiths and races playing the beautiful game is pretty groundbreaking.

That’s what Bend It Like Beckham is all about. Parminder Nagra plays a Punjab Sikh forbidden by her parents to play football because of her gender. Keira Knightley befriends her and gets her to try out for a local team.

Like the other cult films on our list, conflict is a central theme, but that is overcome here.

Green Street (2005)Football hooliganism is another sensitive topic portrayed superbly on screen in this film.

Elijah Wood, fresh from his defining role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings triology, plays an expelled Harvard student who visits London and becomes embroiled in a firm that gets into fights with rival fans after West Ham games.

Green Street draws on the 1989 TV film The Firm, which deals with similar subject matter.

Adapted for the screen from the 1992 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award winning essay, Firth follows Arsenal throughout their triumphant campaign amid a burgeoning romance with a fellow teacher.

Mark Strong, who has gone on to star in many Guy Ritchie movies, has a supporting role in Fever Pitch too.